


Padawan Meets Child

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: For Family [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Relationships, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 21:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7331092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahsoka gets to meet Leia (as an adult) and the mystery for Leia deepens a bit more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Padawan Meets Child

Ahsoka worked until she had all the systems at least functional, if not the best, and then realized she really needed to deal with her injuries and hunger. However, there were others present, which would make treatment easier, especially for her back. 

"Here's your Lord's suit," she told the Noghri keeping an eye on her. "Make it available to him for when he wakes. I'm going to get help for my injuries," she said, not taking no for an answer as she grabbed the medkit she had ransacked earlier for Vader.

"We will," the one that had been closest to her for most of this agreed, before putting out a hand, though the fingers did stop short of touching her. "One of us can tend your wounds." 

"No. Tend him. He is in pain," she growled. "The child can help me, and she needs to be reassured that she is safe!" Ahsoka moved past the Noghri, her anger entirely too high. She needed to find her center soon, or she was going to be a part of the problem.

The Noghri shifted as one -- and were actually swift enough to accomplish their goal; barring her way to the door. "You will not distress the Mal'ary'ush," the central one growled, looking up at her. 

Ahsoka caught her temper by the tail, and met the central Noghri's eyes intently. Nor did she use the Force; she was betting they were immune. "She needs to know she is safe; she should know the Emperor is dead, and I will go and make that clear while she aids me. This will be in keeping with your Lord's expectations of me and what I am likely to do. I do not know all the facts in any of this and will only speak to what I know."

The Noghri held a low, hissing conversation among themselves for a few moments, then nodded, and the central one moved with her. "Then I will guide. This way." 

"Thank you," she said, keeping as much of her sarcasm as she could out of it. She followed with a low hiss for the state of her body; she really shouldn't have ignored all those injuries this long.

The Noghri's head turned, looking up at her for a moment as they continued along, down through a turbolift that responded only to the pressure of long sharp claws, and through a passageway. There were three more Noghri there, before a set of blast doors that shimmered with a containment field over that, and they looked at her guide almost as one. 

There was another conversation, still short, in their language, before one of the ones at the door moved to drop the field and open the doors, calling within as they slid open the first centimeters. 

At the first hint of the door opening, the one Leia had learned was named Vorkhiron moved, a weapon instantly in his hand, before Noghri speech followed and he put it away again. The doors continued to open, and Leia felt a wild surge of relief and worry alike. She did not hear Vader's mechanical breathing, but the Noghri had opened the door... what was going on? 

Ahsoka could appreciate that he had kept his daughter safe, but Vader had also made the child a prisoner, much as she had been in her carbonite. At least she hadn't been aware of it.

"Leia Organa?" Ahsoka called. "I am Ahsoka Tano; may I enter?" She didn't expect Vader to have conveyed her name to the child, but she would be polite to Bail's child. Had the girl been aware of the Rebellion? Would her other name mean more? "Some call me Fulcrum," she added, just in case.

Leia snapped her eyes to Winter, checking to see what her best friend and sharpest wit thought, and Winter shrugged her shoulders slightly. Fulcrum had disappeared some time ago, had been thought dead, to all she and Winter knew, and if she was not dead... well, there were rumors of worse things than death that could happen when Palpatine and Vader were anywhere near. "Come in," she agreed, wanting to at least see who she was talking to. 

A mature Togruta woman stepped into view then, showing multiple scorch marks and dried blood on her exposed skin and partial armor plates. She gave a small bow of her head to Leia, then to the unknown girl. 

"I bring news, and request medical aid, Senator," she said, but her eyes were scanning Leia's face intently. Bearing, hair, wardrobe… they all bore resemblance to Padmé Amidala but she remembered Breha as having been exceptionally stately as well.

Winter moved to take the aid kit; another non-human working with Vader? How strange would this all get? Especially when this one claimed to be a guiding force of the early Rebellion?

"News is more than welcome," Leia replied, though the sight of another nonhuman in Vader's close proximity was incredibly stunning, "and of course we will help you. This is Winter Retrac, my dearest friend and aide. 

"Please, sit down, or lie down, you don't look well," she added as she came to help Winter and Miss Tano. She wanted to know everything that had happened, what the situation was outside of this half-shelter, half-prison, but her curiosity could wait until they had done as much for this stranger as they could. 

Ahsoka nodded and took a seat on the floor; it would give access to all of her injuries. Winter knelt down gracefully, and began with cleaning the deepest wound, a 'saber shaped burn that had tagged shoulder and lekku alike.

"I am sorry it took me so long to come down, but … I owed it to _him_ to repair his suit since he took several attacks meant for me," she said, letting her unhappiness over the honor debt come through. "The Emperor is dead. From the message boards I could see and hear as we came back here, the Rebel Alliance was gaining control of Coruscant, at the very least. They have promised to restore the Senate."

Leia shook her head in profound amazement as she came to Miss Tano's other side, reaching for another set of cleansing wipes to get blood away from the next-worst of the wounds. The Emperor, dead. She could hardly believe it, could less believe that Darth Vader had been a part of his fall... and the news of the Alliance sent a wild joy rippling through her heart. 

As she touched the other woman's skin, she... felt something. For a moment, it was as though she could taste bitter unhappiness and a cold satisfaction, with a vicious, amorphous anger under it all. She shook her head, trying to shake off the uncanny sensation, telling herself it was just the isolation and what she could see in this stranger's eyes.

"The... Emperor is dead," she repeated, knowing she sounded amazed... well, she was, she might as well sound it. "That... amazes me. And Lord Vader...?" 

Ahsoka breathed in and out slowly, biting back the Mando'a curse she wanted to spit because of all the conflicted emotions in her. She forced herself to center, to find her calm, aware the Noghri were listening. 

"He took the brunt of the fighting, leaving me free to move in and out of range to wear down the Emperor. His suit was heavily damaged, and we got him into his chamber that he uses for when he must be out of it. I have sent his suit back to him but do not know how soon he might join us." That she wanted to leave, to disappear, was something she would neither say nor do. He might have taken the choice away from her, but she had made a promise in their last true fight, one she was compelled to honor until he released her from it… or betrayed her further.

Leia made a quiet, startled noise. If it was more at the idea of Vader taking damage for anyone else, or at the idea that he could be damaged at all, she wasn't entirely certain. It didn't really matter, she supposed, but it... Then the suit truly was life support of some kind, if she said 'must be' out of it. For a moment, she wondered if that might be the trick to removing _him_ from power, and then was disgusted at herself for the thought. 

"It must be difficult, to work with someone who has been the embodiment of fear for so long," Winter said, curious how that had come to be. 

Ahsoka let a small bitter noise escape her. "Who could turn down the request to end the Emperor's foul reign?" She then sighed. "But that's not your real question, is it Winter? No, you're asking how a Rebel came to be on hand for the fight, when I disappeared… sometime ago.

"I last faced him on Malachor, and thought we had agreed to go our own ways, when the Temple was coming down around us. He opted to change my mind, and has been keeping me in reserve, possibly for this reason alone," she said, thinking that was neutral enough to not set the bodyguards off.

"On Malachor?" Leia's eyes went wide at hearing of the planet that was a synonym for hell, even as her hands paused on Miss Tano's skin, before she shook it off and kept working, turning over the caution she could hear in those phrases. 'He opted to change my mind'... well. That sounded like the Darth Vader she had been warned of for all of her life. 

"With two others," Ahsoka confirmed. "I think they made it off the planet; I shoved them both out before the temple tried to seal us in," she said softly, remembering Ezra's cry to her. "I serve the Republic, and always will, at least its spirit." She tipped her chin up sharply. "They might not have been right in a lot of things, like throwing away the lives of my friends, but the spirit of what they stood for was worth defending!"

Winter made a soothing noise; her studies with Breha and the others in Breha's circle had taught her that Ahsoka's words held truth. Though she was curious about the part about sacrificing lives.

"Most of the history of the last... ten years, or so, of the Republic, has been almost entirely erased," Leia told her, as they worked, the determined, emphatic jut to the woman's chin tugging at something in her chest, "so I don't entirely know what you mean... but the ideals of the Republic have always seemed worth fighting for, to me." 

Ahsoka looked at her, a soft smile and memories crowding her own mind to make her voice gentle. "That doesn't surprise me, Leia," she said softly. "You have a legacy of freedom to live up to, after all." That was ambiguous enough; Bail and Breha were very vocal against the Emperor's rise after all.

Winter carefully moved the central lekku to get at the rest of that wound, and Ahsoka hissed, hands turning to fists, before she reached for her Jedi training, turning the pain out to the Force. The impression of something moving from her outward was strong to Leia, like those flashes of emotion earlier.

"I just hope that I can," Leia answered, only hearing that her voice was a little bit... off... after she had spoken. That gentleness was startling for a moment, before she realized that her mother and father more than deserved that kind of respect and it shouldn't surprise her. The other woman's fisted hands, though, made her want to thump her own head against the wall, and she asked, quickly, "Is there something in the kit you could take for the pain? I'm afraid I don't know much about... Togruta, right?... biology." 

"It's okay. I was training as a Jedi. I can handle the pain." She didn't want to be drugged, not when she could not predict what would be coming once Vader was up and moving again. She had her lightsabers and her injuries were less severe than his; she would not let him kill her. "And yes, I am Togruta. Probably haven't met many of us, given how xenophobic the Empire is." So many non-humans had been enslaved, destroyed, or shoved out to the Outer Rim.

"That will be fixed if the Republic is restored," Winter said firmly.

This woman had been training to be a _Jedi_? But the Jedi had been hunted since before her birth, Leia knew. She must be an amazing survivor, to have lived up to now with that. "No, we haven't," she agreed, "but Winter's right. That's high among the things that have to be fixed."

Ahsoka gave her a smile, then leaned forward to let Winter get to the lower scorch mark. "I like you, Leia. And you, Winter. You both feel dedicated to the better things."

"Thank you, Miss Tano." Winter carefully cleaned this lower wound, noting it had been stressed by motion. 

How, Ahsoka wondered, was she going to keep them safe from Vader himself? Unless she could really reach Anakin, and reinforce that this was Padmé's child, that he needed to encourage to be like her birth-mother? Which, she realized, meant staying close and being a conscience to him.

For the first time in so long, she wished for Master Plo Koon, for his steadying presence, the way he could calm her so easily. His fatherly demeanor would be a good shield against all of this.

Only, he'd turned against her too. She really was on her own, until she could find…

...No, she would not even think his name. She had to keep him safe. She buried that attachment deep in her soul, so Vader could not find it.

" _Aliit ori'shya tal'din_ ," she murmured under her breath, the Mando'a settling her more, as she knew she would need her temper under control when Vader did come to them. She owed Leia, and the girl Winter as Leia's friend, to do all she could to protect them. _Family is more than blood._

++++

The drug wore off much later than Ahsoka had predicted, but when it did, Vader could feel that he was already partially encased in his suit. The Noghri had put as much of it as possible on him while he laid still in the drugged oblivion, leaving the mask where he could easily reach it.

There was… something missing, something in his mind, and he probed that as he laid still, not yet reaching for the face piece or helmet. 

His thoughts seemed clearer, as if there was no veil on it. Memories came swiftly, as he recalled the fight, getting back here… Ahsoka's emotions brushing against him so clearly. Even now, as he took stock of his mind, he could feel her there, shielded, but not silent as all of his connections had been for so long.

The Emperor was dead. The heavy presence of his hatred was missing, and with it, there was a new sense of knowledge. All these years, that hate that had blended into his own emotions, had masked parts of himself away, much as he had viscerally buried all that was Anakin Skywalker.

With a sense of renewal, yet still loathing the necessity, Vader sat up and placed the mask to his face, then settled the helmet, feeling it seal into place. Properly attired to face the outer world, he rose and strode out of the chamber as it opened. The Noghri were waiting, but he ignored them, following the strong Force presence of his former Padawan.

He was unsurprised she was in the protected inner rooms, where Padmé's daughter was. She was as predictable as ever in her emotionally charged motivations. However, where once he would have suspected the Togruta of taking advantage to further twist the girl away from him, he knew she was too honorable for that path.

Why was his awareness so clear on that point? Had the Emperor been clouding his perceptions all this time?

The Noghri on duty there swiftly opened the door and shielding for him, and he swept in to see Ahsoka uncurling from where she had fallen asleep on the floor -- old soldier habits -- to take a guarded stance between him and the younger ladies in the room.

"Lord Vader," Winter said smoothly, letting her diplomacy training give Leia that much longer to decide how to proceed from here.

Leia took a breath, studying the man in front of them. Miss Tano had moved so swiftly, putting herself between them and him, that she believed, a little more, that she was a force for the Republic, not the Empire. She could see, all over the featureless, terrifying suit, that it had been damaged, that it had been repaired, and... 

...there was something different, about him, more than just the rewired pieces of the suit. Something of the air of powerful menace and boiling temper was... lessened. She moved to Winter's side, a step ahead of her, and looked at him steadily. "Hello," she said, steady. "Miss Tano has told us some of what happened... I must admit myself amazed. 

"And grateful." 

Vader looked at the Togruta briefly, but then fixed his gaze on Leia. "It was necessary," he said firmly. He had not done it for gratitude, even if her words did mean something, deep down inside of him. "I would prefer if you and your friend remain here until I am assured the planet is settled firmly in proper hands."

Winter took note of that, almost asked whose hands would be proper, but at this point, she was willing to ride out the uncertainty if it meant keeping Leia safe from the monster's rage.

"I plan to stay as well," Ahsoka said, not giving way at all. 

"Of course you will, Tano," he said. "Leia, if you require anything, you will let Vorkhiron know of it, and he will see that it is delivered to you."

Was it good that Vader had used Leia's name, not her title or last name? Winter wasn't certain on that part, and felt they were missing large pieces of the puzzle.

The way he had said 'prefer'... did that mean that if she pressed, he would let them go? She could hardly believe that. "They have taken good care of Winter and I," she answered, "and I don't require much. But thank you." 

She was somewhat offended to find that she meant the words. That was another signal that... whatever was going on, whatever his reasons were... they were not prisoners here. But why, she wondered for the thousandth time, had she become so important? Her father would not have asked this...

"I _would_ like to speak to my father, if you have any way to reach him?" 

"I will be in touch with him soon," Vader told her. "And will invite him to join you at his earliest convenience. If he cannot, by the end of the day, I will inform him he should contact you via comm." It hurt… why did it hurt… to know that this child loved her father so much? The man that had sheltered and protected her _was_ her father, not Anakin. Not where it mattered.

Ahsoka's eyes narrowed just slightly, before she moved away from her guardian position. She was willing to sit, to just quietly observe, and mull over the vestige of connection with this man. He felt different, and she could not figure out the exact ways.

Leia wasn't entirely certain that she wanted her father here, but... surely if he thought he was in danger, he would use only the comm, and then she would know a little more about what to do. "Thank you," she answered, her voice still steady, if soft. 

Miss Tano had moved, settling back out of the way of a strike... did that mean she thought none would come? Probably. And Leia had the oddest certainty that she was right, too. "I'm certain the HoloNet is full of rumor and wild speculation, but is there a screen somewhere in this place? I'm not sure I've ever been this out of touch." 

"That will not do, will it, for the Senator of Alderaan?" Vader asked, almost amused. "I will have everything moved in here for you. As the Senate should be called to session within the next few days, and you will be expected to go there." He turned his mask toward Ahsoka, who sighed.

"Yes," she said to the demand implicit in that look. "I will be the visible bodyguard. Which means I need clothing to cover my lightsabers."

"That will no longer be necessary," he informed her, steel rising in his voice. "It is the Order that I had issues with."

She bared her teeth slightly, remembering how many Jedi had died, how many clones had slowly gone insane as the ramifications of what they had done broke past the inhibitors. At the faintest pressure around her, she made herself calm, but the anger was there despite hiding her sharp teeth.

Vader did not care; he had done what he thought was necessary at the time. Or… had he? How many Jedi had he personally hunted down, because of the Emperor? Not his own hatred, but that of the Sith Master he served.

What was going _on_ , Leia wondered again, between these two? And what had put that note of ringing steel in his voice? 

Oh, why was she so young?! Surely this would make more sense if she just knew more, but so many of her attempts had gotten her only dead ends and destroyed records. The time just before the Emperor's rise might as well have never occurred, judging from all the archives she could reach. 

She had no particular desire to break that tableaux, to call the attention of either of these powerful beings back to her... but she did not want them to spiral into conflict, either. "Thank you," she said, "but I cannot think there would be much need for a bodyguard in the Senate...?" 

Vader turned his attention back to her, then looked at Winter. "You are trained in personal combat, yes?"

"Of course," she said, not denying it. 

"Good." He then looked back at Leia. "There will be unrest, as those that the Emperor elevated, who survived yesterday, strike out. As the daughter," and it hurt to say that, "of Organa, you will be a likely target. As I believe he is a guiding hand on the Alliance now taking power?"

"It may not be needed, not in the Senate itself, but transportation there and back might be dangerous, milady," Ahsoka explained. "Lord Vader gave his word you would be unharmed, and I do feel bound to assist in that mission." Bound by Anakin, bound by her pull to the Rebels, and completely bound to Padmé Amidala did not need to be said.

Leia had a moment's flicker of panic, months of knowing she had to keep her allegiance, her father's allegiance, secret flaring up in her, but... he seemed so calm at the idea. Not calm about everything, no, there was something roiling just under that blank, implacable surface, but about the Alliance. "All right," she agreed, dipping her head slightly. Danger from the Emperor's favorites... that was surely true. "Yes, he will be, and you're probably right." 

"I will see that you have what a Senator needs," Vader said, turning to leave. Ahsoka watched him go, only relaxing once she could not feel him on the same level anymore.

"I do not understand," she muttered, shaking her head to get the tension out of her lekku. 

Winter raised an eyebrow at that, and then made an inquisitive noise, to see if the woman would expound on it. Ahsoka looked at her, then Leia, and sighed softly.

"It's a long, messy story," she told them, hoping to be able to leave it at that, but doubting it.

"Well, we seem to have nothing but time on our hands, for the moment," Leia pointed out, "and I think Winter and I are even more confused than you are. Maybe, somehow, we can help each other?" 

Ahsoka laughed at that, shaking her head. "No, nothing's going to unravel the nerf-ball of my confusion," she told them. "And part of it has to do with secrets I'm not comfortable giving up, because I like breathing and not having another duel the day after the Emperor nearly killed us both. I'd hate to break the repairs I made on his suit so quickly."

If she fell back on sarcasm and quipping, maybe the ache in her chest would lessen.

"I had a friend once… and I lost him. Because of Vader. But sometimes… sometimes I think my friend is close," she said softly. "And it hurts, knowing Vader is the reason I probably will never really have my friend back." Would that be clear enough? From Winter's sudden shift in posture, she thought it might be. "When Vader does something, it's all or nothing. That's part of the Sith way, or something like that." The next part would be trickier, to explain to Leia why she was safe, for now, without spilling the beans. "I think he knew your real parents," was the safest way she could phrase things. "And maybe he owed something of a debt there, because his willingness to help is because of you, Leia," Ahsoka finished, as that was completely the truth.

Leia heard Vorkhiron make a low noise that she thought was displeased, but when she turned to look at him, the Noghri was as still and expressionless as ever. 

"Because of me," she repeated, shocked, and more shocked at the idea that she could have such an impact on Darth Vader. She shook her head, wanting to run her hand through her hair, thinking. "He said something like that. That when he found 'reason to make an effort, I give it everything I have'...

"But I don't even know who my biological parents are, how could he?" 

"The ways of the Force are mysterious," Ahsoka said, blaming the omnipresent Force rather than answer that question. "For what it's worth, I'm just as glad that your existence was enough to make him choose the better path for once." She breathed out heavily, not even bothering to return the Noghri glare her direction. "Mind if I catnap while he's rounding up your gear? I'm still … tired." Like sleeping in carbonite for a few years hadn't been enough rest. But honestly, it was an emotional fatigue as much as a physical one.

She hoped what friends she had possessed prior to that fight had all made it this far.

"No, go ahead," Leia answered, instantly, seeing the fatigue all over the other woman. "Please do rest." 

These half-answers were almost worse than none at all, but... it was obviously all she was going to get. Her existence had pushed Darth Vader to turn on the Emperor? Brought him into alliance with her father? 

It was too much to believe, and yet... the explanations fit what evidence she had. 

Ahsoka curled up right where she was, looking for all the world like a lothcat as she settled in a small place… hands near her lightsabers.

Winter shook her head, then moved closer to Leia, offering her solace against the mystery with her physical presence. Eventually, they would get all the answers… somehow.


End file.
